REPORTS

Report: Hello Solar - Ethiopia Learning

Ethiopia is the world’s third largest potential market for solar products but also one of the most challenging.

PAYGO solar product providers have traditionally found it difficult to penetrate the 60 million people off-grid population lacking access to energy due to several factors:

A complex regulatory environment

low mobile money penetration (one of the lowest in Africa)

Low population density, particularly in the lowlands where 1/3 of the population reside

Shell Foundation, with co-funding from DFID and USAID, worked with Belcash, the leading mobile money provider in Ethiopia, to accelerate the availability of PAYG energy solutions in the country, co-creating a new enterprise called HelloSolar.

HelloSolar has looked to leverage BelCash’s agent network, brand presence and MFI partnerships to scale the sales and distribution of affordable and high-quality PAYG solar home systems in two regions.

They concentrated efforts on informing the customers of the products and the after-sales requirements around installation, payments and maintenance.

This early pilot report shows positive results of providing tailored payment plans and using an agent-led sales model, with 82% satisfaction levels among their new customers.